Popular stories on MusicTales

1. 

   Marching Band

   Entrance of the Gladiators: military march by Julius Fučík found world fame as a screamer music for circuses

   Entrance of the Gladiators is one of the world's most famous marches which has cemented itself in public awareness by…

   February 26, 2020

2. 

   Songwriter

   Livin' la Vida Loca: why is Ricky Martin's best song so catchy?

   Livin' la Vida Loca is likely one of the best-known tracks in the entire repertoire of the Puerto Rican singer…

   March 17, 2021

3. 

   Veena

   Muthuswami Dikshitar: South Indian composer and poet who embellished Carnatic repertoire 200 years ago

   Muthuswami Dikshitar was the most influential Indian composer representing Carnatic tradition which is most present in…

   July 27, 20192 comments

4. 

   Orchestra

   Ombra mai fu: Handel's best-known melody of failed Serse opera

   The highly acclaimed instrumental composition known as Handel's Largo comes from the opening aria of his 1738 opera…

   December 6, 2020

5. 

   Music Theory

   Dorian mode in Led Zeppelin songs

   Diatonic scales, as postulated by the classical tonal theory, are among the most convenient devices for composing…

   September 17, 2021

6. 

   Synthesizer

   The analog synthesizers of Isao Tomita programming fresh sound for all-time classics

   Japanese composer Isao Tomita was one of the first to explore analog synthesizers in search for new sounds that would…

   July 10, 2019

7. 

   Music Theory

   Picardy third: cadence for a happy ending in classical music and popular songs

   In musical theory, the term Picardy third is used to refer to a special way of ending a minor piece with a major chord…

   May 13, 2020

8. 

   Classical Guitar

   Ferdinando Carulli: the Parisian sensation and décacorde guitar inventor

   Ferdinando Carulli was among the most influential Italian guitarists whose music, textbooks, and instrument design…

   October 9, 20192 comments

9. 

   Poetry

   Peter Sinfield: the songwriter whose lyrics embellished the formative prog rock albums of the 1970s

   Peter Sinfield is an iconic songwriter who has written for most influential albums of the prog-rock genre released…

   December 15, 20193 comments

10. 

    Flute

    Badinerie: origins of Bach's famous flute suite

    Badinerie—the final movement of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor—is rightfully recognized as one of the best…

    June 30, 2022

11. 

    Sea Shanty

    Randy Dandy O: sea chantey for raising anchors and sailing around Cape Horn

    Randy Dandy O is one of the most famous sea shanties, a song genre presumed to have originated in the 19th century…

    July 23, 2020

12. 

    Classical Guitar

    Matteo Carcassi's guitar etudes of early Romanticism are still relevant for teaching classical guitar

    Matteo Carcassi was an Italian guitar composer whose creative period coincided with the expansion of classical music…

    February 16, 20206 comments

13. 

    Piano

    Two Arabesques: the fledgling impressionism of Debussy's early work

    Deux arabesques are two piano pieces written by Claude Debussy in the late 1880s and are now considered to be one of…

    October 18, 2021

14. 

    Flute

    The early collaboration of flute and viol in the court of Versailles

    In one of his marvelous court paintings, André​ Bouys depicts four prominent composers working on a composition for…

    May 1, 20195 comments

15. 

    Technologies

    Innovative Bohemian Rhapsody set new standards for the music video production

    Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is one of the strangest and least-understood songs in the rock genre. It comes across as an…

    June 11, 20181 comment

16. 

    Meditation

    Om Namo Narayanaya: meaning and purpose of popular Vishnu mantra

    Om Namo Narayanaya is one of the best-known Sanskrit mantras addressed to the god Vishnu—one of the principal deities…

    October 5, 2021

17. 

    Classical Guitar

    Innovative tremolo technique by Johann Kaspar Mertz and his contribution to terz guitar

    Johann Kaspar Mertz was an Austro-Hungarian composer and outstanding guitarist of the Romantic era who is credited with…

    April 26, 2020

18. 

    Songwriter

    Makin' Whoopee: cautionary song warning against the trappings of marriage

    Makin' Whoopee is an ironic song describing the successive transformation of the relationship between two lovers from…

    April 7, 2021

19. 

    Songwriter

    Twist in My Sobriety: rare oboe solo in Tanita Tikaram's best song

    Twist in My Sobriety is a song by British pop-folk singer Tanita Tikaram released as a single from her debut album…

    May 10, 2020

20. 

    Piano

    Je te veux: Satie's love song refashioned as piano piece

    Je te veux is one of the best-known pieces by the French Romantic composer Erik Satie, famous for popularizing his…

    December 9, 2021

21. 

    Erhu

    The Erhu fiddle melody recorded by blind Abing spread worldwide revealing composition methods of Chinese folk music

    One of the most recognizable Chinese folk tunes, Erquan Yingyue, also called The Moon Reflected on the Er-Quan Spring,…

    April 21, 2019

22. 

    Songwriter

    Firth of Fifth: impressionistic Genesis song as a prog-rock masterpiece

    Firth of Fifth is a ten-minute track released by Genesis on the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound and is…

    May 30, 2021

23. 

    Orchestra

    The many attempts of Romantic composers to adapt Shakuntala love story from Mahabharata epic

    The love story of Shakuntala is first mentioned in the oldest Sanskrit epic of the Mahābhārata which could be traced…

    July 17, 2019

24. 

    Music Theory

    Subtonic and leading-tone in cadences

    Depending on the interval sequences of a particular diatonic scale, the seventh scale degree can be called subtonic or…

    September 24, 2020

25. 

    Sarod

    100 years for 1 career: the great artist and teacher Allauddin Khan

    Allauddin Khan was the great Bengali multi-instrumentalist and composer who, to this day, remains one of the most…

    July 18, 2018

26. 

    Music Theory

    Lost for Words: Pink Floyd's only Lydian song

    Of all 138 songs and instrumental tracks released by Pink Floyd on their 14 studio albums, Lost for Words is the only…

    August 14, 2021

27. 

    Sarod

    The mohan veena: classic instrument developed by Radhika Mohan Maitra is a child of veena, sarod, and sitar

    Radhika Mohan Maitra was an outstanding Bengali musician who enriched the Hindustani classical tradition by not only…

    October 2, 20192 comments

28. 

    Poetry

    The Ektara: traditional music instrument of the Bauls, wandering minstrels from Bengal

    Bauls are the wandering minstrels of the Indian subcontinent whose history traces back to the 15th century as mentioned…

    April 16, 2020

29. 

    Violin

    Paganini's one-stringed soap opera

    The life of Niccolò Paganini was surrounded by a number of legends. A particularly colorful story tells of Paganini…

    March 12, 2018

30. 

    Music Theory

    Popular songs showing the mediant chord in all diatonic modes

    In musical theory, the mediant refers to the third scale degree of the diatonic scale, and the triad rooted in the…

    March 2, 2021